Summary
With Zoe's and Dmitri's help, the characters can get a sense of how far up the corporate ladder the corruption has spread. Selling weaponized diseases to the highest bidder doesn't sound like it conforms to the Hippocratic Oath, which MediShield still uses and respects.

Background
Once the characters come to terms with Dmitri in The Rat-Faced Plan, they can start asking questions about who runs the Black Market industry at MediShield. The characters still have the data crystal with its volatile contents detailed in What's On The Crystal?

Adventure
Dmitri technically belongs to the Computer Maintenance department at MediShield, but he takes his orders from the CCO (Chief Communications Officer) of the company, Admiral Joel Greenberg. Dmitri will gladly tell the characters everything he knows, but will warn against using his login ID. Looking for evidence on MediShield's computers using his ID will alert Admiral Greenberg that Dmitri has been compromised. This will result in the deployment of four more retrieval teams (that's 20 special forces grade combat operatives - see Drop That MacGuffin! for stats and modify as need) to permanently remove Dmitri (and anyone he happens to be sharing a building with when he's found) from the playing field in about a week.

As a gesture of good faith, Dmitri will call off the local goons he hired to follow Zoe's sister and mother. Zoe will have a hard time working with Dmitri, so keeping them separated as much as possible will help speed things along.

Zoe might have better luck with finding information. She has lower clearance, but with some detective work and time she can find some useful information. She will discover early on that the crystal was created at the Pandora Research Facility, which is a small lab station orbiting much closer to Elysium's sun for abundant solar power and easy incineration in case of facility-wide contamination. Refer to the Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility (forthcoming) for the rest of the information she can uncover using her skills and access.

Zoe working by herself will take about a week to piece together all the information. If the characters want to speed that process along, they can spend some time to help Zoe using either Admin, Computer, Liason, Medical, or Merchant skills. Each character can try once per day to throw a 9+ (DM +Skill) to give the character one piece of information from the Dossier per success. Throwing a modified 5- will start raising eyebrows and only some fast talking or creative message interception from Dmitri will keep the strike teams from being activated.

Further Hooks
The characters can stop gathering information at any time, but attempting to take apart the Black Market without at least the research contact's name at Pandora Research Facility will prove difficult. If the facility gets destroyed then Admiral Greenberg will simply accelerate his operations at other research facilities. Bringing evidence against Admiral Greenberg will take down the Black Market and make sure it won't start again elsewhere. Available evidence will be summarized in a forthcoming adventure.

Dmitri will not alert Admiral Greenberg to the fact that he's been compromised. He values his life too much to roll those dice.

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Wombat Whozit?

Better known as T.W.Wombat. Editor of Role Playing Games. Vanquisher of befuddlement. Working gamer. Dime-store philosopher. Childish father. Impromptu planner. Paradigm adjuster. System combiner. Intolerant of intolerance. Will GM for food.